Tailfin
by animalsarepeopletoo
Summary: Toothless is still a growing boy. When he hits a large growth spurt, his tailfin doesn't fit him anymore. However, the alpha dragon doesn't want to throw away the only connection he has to the happy past, so he refuses a new prosthetic. In consequence, his rider pays the price. Post-HTTYD 2. One-shot.


**Tailfin**

As soon as Toothless awoke, he knew that something was wrong. It was that instinct in the back of his mind that he just couldn't quite ignore. However, he couldn't quite place exactly _what_ was the problem, so he merely shrugged it off. He was a Night Fury, after all; what was there to be wrong?

He snapped open his eyes and glanced over to Hiccup's bed. The young chief was rousing as well, knowing that he'd soon have to start a new day.

Toothless jumped from his platform, then came over to Hiccup's door. As the new alpha, he too had new responsibilities to take over - and some couldn't be completed by himself, as he required Hiccup to be able to fly. Hiccup had constantly suggested that Toothless wear his mechanical tailfin, but Toothless despised the thing. It was difficult restraining himself to not destroy it. Therefore, it was decided; he would wait for Hiccup when the needed to fly, and today, he would. He whined at his rider to hurry up.

Hiccup sat up in bed, yawning, and quickly got out. There was a lot to do today, he knew as he looked around his room. He still used his old sleeping quarters instead of the chief's master bedroom; a little improper, but it would be odd to suddenly start sleeping in his late father's room. He was fine here.

"I'm coming, bud," said Hiccup as he quickly changed into suitable clothes for the day. Toothless waited patiently for his rider until Hiccup was done, when he bounded out and darted down the stairs, Hiccup at his heels. Once they had gotten a bite to eat, they left the house to begin the busy day.

Hiccup started to board Toothless (though the walk to the central village was only a few minutes, it would be quicker to fly and both enjoyed their morning flight), but when he clicked the tailfin into place, Toothless gave a whimper of pain.

"What…?" Concerned, Hiccup tried the same thing over to see if he would evoke the same reaction. Again, Toothless hissed, his pupils narrowing at the irritation.

"Woah, buddy… hey, it's okay… what's wrong, Toothless?" Hiccup worriedly patted his head, calming the Night Fury. "Let's see what's going on back here…" He stumbled off of his dragon to see what was the problem. Was the tailfin not latched on properly? The strings broken, perhaps?

"Oh!" Hiccup knew what was wrong as soon he saw the problem. "Huh. It seems that your tail has almost _shrunk_ , bud…" His face broke into a sly smile. "That... or you're getting bigger."

Toothless rumbled questioningly.

Hiccup smirked. "It _means_ that Night Furies can apparently get pretty large, Toothless… you're a big dragon already. And I think you must've gained at least twenty pounds this month alone. All those extra meals have added up, you know." Toothless guiltily thought of the extra portions of fish he had snuck, or the time that he had two full-size dinners in one night... okay, maybe it was more than just once. Hiccup laughed. "You're growing, bud. It's nothing to be ashamed of. We'll just need to make you a new tailfin, that's all."

Toothless tensed, then growled. _No_.

"Huh?" Hiccup cocking his head to try and meet Toothless's green gaze, but the dragon was avoiding him. "Does the big baby boo not want a new tailfin?"

The Night Fury grunted, though it was in some sort of agreement. _I don't, in fact, thank you very much…_

Hiccup chuckled. "Come on, bud; I've changed your prosthetic a million times before."

 _This one's fine! I don't need a new one. Go fix something else._ Toothless ducked away before Hiccup could get up to any schemes.

But it was true. Hiccup _had_ changed the dragon's tailfin out before, and Toothless certainly needed a change today. However, now... Toothless didn't want a new one. Now that he was the alpha dragon, and Hiccup was a chief, this tailfin was the only link back to the happy times he and his rider had shared. He didn't want to throw away all of the memories of joyful flights with Hiccup, soaring so high it was hard to breathe, discovering new lands and new dragon species… it was too precious to forget.

"Toothless…" Hiccup's voice was in his warning tone. "You need a new prosthetic."

Toothless huffed, turning away. He would do what he liked. He was the awesome _Night Fury._ No rules could hold him down if he didn't want them to.

Hiccup sighed in exasperation. "Flying is going to hurt you, then, bud. You won't be able to grasp control."

 _Who cares! I'll figure it out._

"You might fall."

 _Done that a thousand times._

" _I_ might fall."

Toothless gave the chief a pointed look. _Like you haven't before_. In his youth, Hiccup had fallen from fifty-foot drops, earning barely a scratch. He could survive now.

Hiccup groaned, tugging at Toothless's thick neck but not even budging the Night Fury. "I'm the chief of an entire village and I can't even control one stubborn dragon… oh, Thor give me strength…" After a minute of fruitless tugging, he threw his hands up. "Fine! I guess I'll just have to _walk_ to town, like the good old days."

Hiccup began to march away, and Toothless soon trotted after him. He had business is the village, as well. Even though dragons had been tamed for years, there was the occasional rogue beast who kept on setting houses on fire or stealing sheep. OId habits, really, but aggravating nonetheless.

A few minutes later, the pair arrived in the central village. It was bustling with the morning cheeriness and stray flames. Hiccup wouldn't trade this life for the whole world.

Unbeknownst to Toothless, Hiccup had wandered over to the forge. He had a million more things to do today, but he wasn't stupid. Toothless needed a new tailfin. They couldn't be grounded for too long. Hiccup needed to be airborne for plenty of his chiefly duties, as did Toothless for being an alpha. It was only a matter of time before Toothless gave in to the bigger picture, and the chief needed to be ready for when that happened. Still… Toothless's ego was bigger than Stoick the Vast's belly. It might take awhile before Toothless finally relented.

Gobber grinned at Hiccup when he entered his shop. He was fixing up a Nightmare's teeth right now, so he couldn't get up to talk, but Hiccup waved to show he had seen him. Then he continued to the back of the forge where he could get started on that tail.

A few minutes into his work, he felt something nudge his back. He turned to see Toothless there, looking displeased. He was obviously grumpy at Hiccup going behind his back. _I. Said. No._

Hiccup set down his contorted metal rod. "Toothless, you _know_ this is necessary. We can't be stuck on land forever… even _you_ can't be that obstinate."

Toothless stuck his head up. _Watch me_.

With that, he stalked out of the room with all the dignity of an alpha… that is, until he stumbled on a stray wrench. But he straightened a moment later and continued his kingly strut.

Hiccup shook his head after him, muttering, "That dragon…" With a sigh, he turned back to his work. Once he had finished bending the metal, he could put it in the flames to harden it, and then dunk it in water in order to cool it. After that, he would make his finishing touches… he still needed the fabric for the actual tailfin, after all… but the skeleton of the tail would be done. So he resumed the task, settling comfortably back into work in the forge. He had spent about half of his life working in here, and was still used to taking the role of a blacksmith. Once he was done with the rod, he could get started on the fabric… he could use the same design, of course, he just needed to sew on a new patch of-

"TOOTHLESS!"

Once again, the Night Fury had snuck up on his rider. Hiccup blew out a pained puff of air. "Toothless. _Out_. I'm making your tailfin no matter what you do…"

But Toothless persisted, whining and whimpering badly. Finally, Hiccup gave up working and turned to his dragon. " _Toothless_ , can't you see that I need to-"

Suddenly, Toothless latched his mouth onto Hiccup's arm (teeth safely retracted in gum) and tugged the chief out of the room. He seemed to want Hiccup to go somewhere. Hiccup fought back, yelling, " _Toothless, this is no time for games_!"

 _I know that!_ Toothless growled in return, but continued. This wasn't about him. It was about the village and his new dragon subjects.

Hiccup was about to go against his dragon and scratch his soft spot so he'd let him go, but then he heard a scream from outside. It was followed by another one, and still another. Hiccup stopped resisting Toothless's pull, allowing the Night Fury to bring him to the scene of action.

In the sky, a Nadder and a Timberjack were fighting, exchanging bursts of flame, spikes, and razor-sharp wings. When the Nadder shot a spineshot at the other dragon, the Timberjack would respond by slicing it in half with one brush of its wings. They then would shoot fire at each other, and the whole process would start over again. But, the thing was, some of the fire was dangerously spraying over the villagers, starting pandemonium. And that Timberjack's wings were brushing the tops of houses a little too close for comfort. The owners of these dragons shouted for them to get back down, but the bickering pair ignored the humans.

Hiccup grimly set his jaw. "We need to break up this fight before they destroy someone's home." He unconsciously jumped on Toothless's back, clicking the tailfin into place. Toothless shuddered at the too-tight fit, and Hiccup's heart panged in sympathy.

"I'm sorry, bud," he apologized. "I don't have time to finish the tailfin… maybe if you had listened earlier, we could've been ready. But it's too late for that. We have to take action _now_."

To prove Hiccup's point, the rogue Nadder shot a spineshot that landed mere inches away from Hiccup's ear, embedded in the wall.

Toothless rumbled, agreeing with his rider. He had tried to control these two quarreling dragons with his new alpha powers, but whatever had enraged them had blocked their mind so powerfully that Toothless couldn't hope to control them. He had only been alpha for a few months- he was still getting used to these new abilities. Hiccup would be better off helping than him.

Shakily, the pair shot up in the sky. Toothless's tail was agony, and his whole body went rigid as it tried to fix the problem but could not.

Hiccup stroked Toothless's head in comfort. "Hang in there, buddy… I'm right here… right here… I've got you… we're almost there… we can do it, Toothless, we're a team… you're a Night Fury… you can do it… hang in there… please, bud, please…" Toothless, trembling, nodded his head, and Hiccup grinned. "There's my buddy, that's it… alright, just a little more now… steady… steady… and… _barrel ro_ -"

But Hiccup never finished that sentence, for poor Toothless's pain scale could only go so far. Overwhelmed and screeching in agony, he bucked like crazy and began to fall from the sky.

This sudden motion was harmful to Hiccup. He was thrown out of his saddle, yelping in alarm. He tumbled down to the earth, causing his villagers to scream. Toothless's vision was red with suffering, but he saw Hiccup fall and dove down to catch his rider.

However, he was too late.

Hiccup slammed down in the dust, his feet (er… foot) stretched out and taking in all of the impact. With a holler of pain and a sickening _SNAP_ , he collapsed to the ground.

Toothless hit the dirt a few seconds later, but his large build and tough skin protected him from more than a few scratches here and there. But Hiccup wasn't so lucky. He hit the ground, full-force, on his _legs_.

Without even taking a moment to rest, Toothless bounded over to the fallen chief, whining in concern. Hiccup's face was tight and saturated with pain. He was trembling, and his fingers were twitching towards his right leg. "Ow… o-ow... oww… Tth.. le…" He stopped mumbling a moment later, falling back to just twitching.

Villagers gathered around the two in panic. Toothless growled, snapping at them. The stress of everything was taking its toll on the Night Fury. He was confused at what was going on… but he did know one thing: they were trying to take Hiccup away. _They were going to hurt him._ Just like in the arena with the Nightmare, years ago… Toothless _had_ to save him.

He let out a mighty roar and stood to his hind legs. He wouldn't let them take his rider. He wouldn't. He would fight them with everything in him. This was _his_ rider! And the alpha protected its own. He shot a plasma blast into the crowd, earning terrified screams. If he was his real self, he would've seen that this was wrong, but he was so on edge with worry and fear that he was falling back to his wild self. He reared again, snarling, and ready to-

Suddenly, Toothless felt a stinging pain the back of his neck. His eyes found that there was some sort of dart sticking out of him. Even more enraged because of his pain, he howled, preparing to jump on the next person who came close to him. But there were more pains, more darts injecting themselves in him. His head swam with a sudden lethargy, and he stumbled back sleepily. What _were_ those things…? Why did he feel so… so...

He was too tired to find out. Despite his mind's roaring protests, he staggered to the ground, then fell over. Unconsciousness crept into his brain, and he soon had no choice but to let go.

His last thought was of Hiccup, and how disappointed he'd be in him.

* * *

Toothless awoke with a pounding headache. Images swam in his head. Phantom hands grabbed at him. His mind was muddled and disoriented. What had happened? Groaning, he pushed his head up and creaked his eyes open. He was in Gothi the healer's room. He remembered this place with bad memories. It was the house where the Berkians had taken Hiccup after the battle with the Red Death… Hiccup… _Hiccup_ … something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Why couldn't he remember-?

His eyes caught on a single bed in the corner. There was a tall figure lying in it. A horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, Toothless forced himself up and walked over to see who it was. He whimpered once he saw.

It was Hiccup.

The chief was drifting in between consciousness and sleep, murmuring feverish things under his breath and groaning in discomfort. Toothless whined, worried. Fuzzy memories filled his head. The old tailfin. The dragon fight. The flight. The fall… billows of unadulterated rage… he needed to protect his rider… stinging darts… He growled.

Hiccup's eyes fluttered at Toothless's noise, then fully opened. "Wha… Toothless!" Joy filled his eyes. "Hey, bud! Good to see you up… you've been sleeping for awhile."

Toothless sat down. He wanted to rush over and lick Hiccup's face, but was still tired and confused at what had gone down. He cocked his head. _What happened?_

"Well… when I fell, I twisted my ankle badly. It was nearly broken, but by some crazy miracle, it wasn't. Apparently, you went… well... wild." He said the word carefully. "Fortunately, someone had some tranquilizer darts with them so they could calm you down while they helped me. I don't remember much, but Astrid told me that they brought me here and Gothi fixed me up. I woke shortly after, but you were still out cold on the floor- they had moved you inside with me. Everyone explained what had happened. Gothi then gave me a sleeping potion that would hold me over for a few hours and block out the pain. I just woke up now… and I guess you did, too, bud." He smiled. "Well, that was one adventure, huh…"

Toothless lowered his head, unhappy.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked. "We're all okay now, Toothless…"

 _It's my fault._

Hiccup, though he could not speak dragon, seemed to understand. "Ah, no, bud… growing up is no one's fault. There's no one to blame for you outgrowing your tailfin. And you couldn't help but have to stop flying when you were in that much pain."

 _I didn't listen to you._ Toothless looked ashamed. _I hurt you._

"Toothless… look…" Hiccup struggled to sit up in bed, and managed to. "We all make mistakes in life. Sometimes our pride can block our true judgement. It has for me, too, sometimes. I don't know why you didn't want a new tailfin, but… that's okay. We all have our secrets in life."

Toothless grunted gratefully.

"Just, sometimes… actually hear me out, okay, bud? We're a team. And team-mates need to work _together_. I'll listen to you if you listen to me." Hiccup smirked. "And maybe be a little less stubborn?"

The dragon nodded after a moment. _Alright._

Hiccup reached out his hand towards Toothless's nose, like he had done the first time he had trained the beast. "Do you trust me?"

Without hesitation, Toothless bridged the gap between them, pressing his forehead into Hiccup's palm.

 _I do_.

He moved closer, and Hiccup wrapped his arms around the Night Fury's neck in a comforting hug.

"Thanks," said Hiccup in a muffled voice.

Toothless gave a soft rumble back as he leaned into the embrace. From now on, he would try and listen to Hiccup. Sure, he was a Night Fury, one of the most powerful dragons of all time. But he was also a friend. And friends respected each other. So that's what Toothless would do.

He would allow a new tailfin. The past was great, he admitted, and he would also look back at it fondly. But the future… the future was even better. He would remember those elated times with Hiccup for always, but also look forward to the new adventures he and his rider would experience. Yes...

And so all was well.

* * *

 **You guys may disagree with the fact that Hiccup seems to understand what Toothless is saying, but I say otherwise. They are... kindred spirits. I think that without even speaking, they can understand each other. Also, Toothless has some pretty great facial expressions that say loads of things. Really anybody could interpret them. :-)**

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed! :D Until next time!**


End file.
